Adopting a new series of tests can raise student test scores. Scores can also be inflated by ensuring certain students do not take specific tests or by not counting some scores. Dramatic rises in standardized scores are likely to be accompanied by skepticism. (MD)

Higher elementary student scores on standardized tests do not mean educational improvement. Scores can be affected by teaching "to" the test, coaching on test taking, and skewed norms. Test scores have been declining at the secondary level. Included is a discussion of secondary tests. (MD)

The underlying theme of the 1979-80 Hartford Public Schools Group test results was maintenance of the status quo. There were both gains and declines in city-wide averages: individual subtest gains in some cases, put Hartford at or above the national norm (math computation in grades 2, 3, and 4), while the reading comprehension averages in grades 7…

Test scores for fall and spring administrations for two consecutive years for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I students in the Tucson Unified School District are presented and compared. The students were given out-of-level tests: the 138 seventh-grade students and 106 eighth-grade students were given Level 2 of the…

Each year, through its system-wide testing program, the Dallas Independent School District collects and reports assessment data on the achievement of its pupils. The data are summarized in a variety of ways in different reports to meet the needs of a particular audience. The three reports in this year's series were produced by computer, using a…

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS), Form U were administered to all students in Grades 5, 7, and 9 in the San Diego City Schools during the last two weeks of April, 1983. This report is intended to respond to two primary questions: (1) how are San Diego elementary and junior high students doing relative to the national norm group, and…

The developer of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills scaling responds to Hoover's attacks on Thurstone and item response theory scales (TM 510 173). While agreeing that grade equivalent (GE) scores are presently the most appropriate developmental score for reporting elementary grade achievement tests, limitations and inconsistencies in the GE…

This report summarizes the results of achievement tests administered in the Spring of 1981 to students in court-identified minority-isolated schools in San Diego, California. An introduction outlines the court order and describes the tests and the participating schools. In 28 of the 36 subject-grade level instances analyzed, student achievement on…

Bilingual Navajo adolescents aged 14-16 were administered the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) and Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS). Correlations were moderate and were higher for females than for males. Norms were established for adolescent Navajos on the RSPM, a nonverbal test of intelligence and visual reasoning. (Author/GDC)

Grade equivalent (GE) scores for elementary school achievement tests are defended in response to efforts to ban their use. Equal interval developmental scoring methods for the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills are criticized. (BS)

The author addresses issues raised by Burket (TM 510 174) about the Iowa Test of Basic Skills scaling procedures. Further reasons for his criticism of Thurstone scale scores and item response theory scale scores for elementary school achievement tests are given. (BS)

This study attempts to detect the presence of either of 2 different categories of large-scale bias in 4 widely used mathematics achievement tests: induced bias and norming bias. Subjects were 407 eighth graders. (IAH)

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills in reading, language, and mathematics was administered to 3,417 second through twelfth grade students plus 201 resource room special education students for a total of 3,618 students, 97% of the student population in the Crete-Monee (Illinois) School District, in April, 1986. The test results were compared:…

In March of 1984, a total of 55,771 New Mexico public school students in grades 3, 5, and 8 were tested with the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) as required by the statewide standardized testing program. This document reports scores as national percentile ranks, and indicates the position of New Mexico students compared to a national…

American school officials almost invariably compare local and national achievement through one of the following norm-referenced tests: (1) the California Achievement Test; (2) the Stanford Achievement Test; (3) the Metropolitan Achievement Test; (4) the Science Research Associates Test; (5) the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills; and (6) the Iowa…